Where Cycling Faces an Uphill Battle for Fans

The world's most famous cycling competition, the Tour de France, is coming to an end this weekend. On Sunday afternoon, the riders will arrive at the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday after cycling more than 3,300 kilometers in three grueling weeks of competition. "La Grande Boucle" - the great loop, as the race is called in France - is touted as one of the biggest sporting events in the world, drawing a television audience of 150 million viewers across Europe in 2024.

Data from Statista Consumer Insights shows that cycling's appeal is highly concentrated in Europe, with roughly one in four sports fans from France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy saying they follow cycling competitions such as the Tour de France, the Giro de Italia or the Vuelta a España, the three "Grand Tours". In the U.S. the share of cycling enthusiasts among sports fans is much lower at just 8 percent - a far cry from the era of the now disgraced Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team.

The sport has been plagued by doping scandals over the years, one of the potential reasons the sport is apparently facing an uphill battle to win over fans in a lot of countries.